Senior Reporter

THE financial situation of the disgraced union boss Michael Williamson is going from bad to worse. Not only has he lost his $400,000 a year union salary, but now his company United Edge has gone bust after losing its $1 million a year income stream from the union.

United Edge, which has gone into administration, collected $4.7 million from the troubled Health Services Union from April 2008 to September 2011.

The former union kingpin failed to disclose in any of the union's annual reports that he was a director and one-third owner of the company, which was providing a software system that managed the union's subscription base.

The arrangement was never the subject of a tender, there was no contract and United Edge charged triple what the previous supplier charged. On top of that, the company operated rent-free from the union's headquarters in Pitt Street.

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When asked about the appointment of an administrator, Mr Williamson said, ''What about it?'' and then added ''I've got nothing to say, nothing at all.''

Adam Farnsworth from the insolvency firm Dean-Willcocks Shepard, was appointed the company's administrator on September 7. He said his investigations were continuing but his preliminary view was that the company was either insolvent or likely to become insolvent.

''My understanding at this stage is the only creditors are related parties and a nominal amount is owed to the Tax Office,'' he said. The related parties claiming they are owed money are companies associated with the directors, Mr Williamson, Brad Bird and Bruce Daniel.

In their final report into cronyism and corruption within the HSUeast branch, the barrister Ian Temby, QC, and accountant Dennis Robertson were particularly critical of the union's dealings with United Edge.

''It was entirely inappropriate, even assuming full disclosure, that Williamson should at the one time have been in charge of the union and also a one-third shareholder in and a director of a major supplier of IT services,'' they said in their report.

They revealed that United Edge was receiving $114,000 a month. ''The more work that goes to United Edge, the more it and he profits, and the more the union's costs rise,'' Mr Temby said.

He recommended that tenders for the provision of the IT services should be called for as soon as possible.

When first asked about United Edge last year, Mr Williamson said in an email to the Herald that in 2007 his second-in-charge, Peter Mylan, recommended the union ''migrate to a more modern, web-based IT system''. Mr Williamson did not explain how he came to have just the kind of system the union was looking for.